


Susie Williams and the Pokerface Mystery

by Nazareth_Rose



Category: Deltarune (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 08:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16615022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nazareth_Rose/pseuds/Nazareth_Rose
Summary: Something had drawn the smile on Lancer's face.And Susie Williams, the Fearsome Fright of Fifth Street, was determined to find out.





	Susie Williams and the Pokerface Mystery

Play the cards with spades to start…  
Can’t read my, no, he can’t read my poker face…  
__________  
“I’m fine, Suze.”  
“Lance, you okay?”  
“Yeah. I’m fine, Suze.”  
“Stop it.”  
“Stop what?”  
“You know what.”  
“You’re doing it again. Your face isn’t quite… there.”  
“Whaddya mean?”  
Suzie tilted her head the way Ralsei liked to make fun of sometimes.  
“It’s like your laugh is drawn on with a cra-yan. I dunno. Can’t explain it. ‘M not a doctor.”  
Lancer shifted back. The smile trailed away, water on the beach when the tide pulled in, slipping, slipping, slipping from his twelve- year- old fingers.   
“‘Sit your dad, Lance?”  
Suzie wasn’t a doctor, but damn it, she needed to be a psychologist. At least now. So far, all the exposure she’d had to his dad was a few indiscrete mentions in a conversation, tongue in cheek, yet tears so, so deep in soul. Something was wrong. Something horribly wrong, though Suzie wasn’t quite sure of it yet.  
Lancer hopped off the rock, some antic having to do with Ralsei tripping and falling on the ground bringing a smile back to his eyes, genuine. Suzie wanted to turn back the hands on her clock, to prop Ralsei back up to honesty. And prop Ralsei up she did.   
“I’m fine, Suze.”  
Something had made Lancer shift back on that rock. And Suzie was determined to find out.   
________________   
Lancer went to a patch of grass and tried, tried, tried to fall asleep. But a movie kept playing, playing in his head. A broken record- no. A film was a film, putting in all of the senses and not just hearing, the film restarting again and again….  
A week ago.   
“See…” the Spades King said, shuffling the cards. Hypnotizing. Nauseating. Nauseatingly perfect, settling all into their intended place. “Boy, you have to learn how to rearrange your cards right. To discard what you don’t want…”  
His hand, able to crush a card without flinching, spared the card, not the child. He slammed his ace of spades on the table.  
“And take those you want. Keep the gold.”  
He looked down a little while, looking down at his cards, playing them close to his chest. Just like everything Lancer knew. Everything in his life was close to someone’s chest. Most of the time, it was his father’s, but what he could keep, God, what he could keep, he kept close to his chest.  
Lancer’s own heart lifted, just a little bit, clutching the top of a cliff he couldn’t quite reach. But he tried. God, he tried. The only hope he could find was in trying.   
But the King was a falcon, a falconer from the medieval age. He latched onto the hope, detected it, pounced on it.   
The King’s face at first was rid of all expression, but then a smile curled up. Defying, surrounding. At first looking like it was embracing, but then choking instead. He looked like he was about to laugh, but he never did.   
“You think you’re gold? You honestly do? I didn’t know just how much of a dumbass you were up until now.  
You big bastard. You think you’re gold. Heh, never seen something that pathetic in my life. Get out of my sight.”  
The thought ended. One of the stars twinkled a few times.  
A week ago.   
“See…” the Spades King said, shuffling the cards. Hypnotizing. Nauseating...  
_____________  
It was night. This Suzie knew because of an artificial moon they’d installed. The stars they’d put up in the sky were twinkling, twinkling beyond the force Suzie had ever seen her own night sky light up.   
Her mind, even her little smile lifted up, too, and she set off.  
__________  
She’d had a suspicion from the very beginning, really. It wasn’t anything new. She managed to remember a few details, but they weren’t detailed at all. A fuzzy bush in the corner. The blue skies- but that was earlier that day. Oh, well.  
But she’d remembered, although not all of the exact words she’d said. She’d remembered that she’d mentioned his dad- she hadn’t said “the King”, but “his dad”-and how for the first time, he just turned away. Like she wasn’t even there.  
Something was wrong.  
And Susie Williams, the fearsome fright of Fifth Street, wanted to find out what.  
_____________________  
Susie almost scared herself with how much she didn’t talk. But she was used to it. This brought her a familiar dose of terrifying- even worse than fear. Downright, pernicious horror.  
But her single conversation went somewhat like this:  
“Hey, y’know where I can find the King?”  
“Um… kid, he’s in a castle…”  
“Nah, man, which castle?”  
“Damn, you’re not from around here, are you?”  
“Nah. What’sit matter?”  
“Hmmm. Well, the castle’s called Le Chateau de Pique.” He spelled it, Susie nodding, jotting it down. “Pretty fancy, huh? It’s from a country up there, way up there with the humans and all of that, that’s supposed to have a ton of cards.”  
The pencil stopped moving. “Thanks, man.”  
“Hey kid, you sure you don’t need a map or something?”  
“Nah. I’ve got one.”  
She could practically feel the man’s eyes widening. “Damn,” the man repeated. He laughed a little, shaking his head. “Good luck out there, kid.”  
_______________________  
Others weren’t as nice as the man. Some spat at her, some swore a few handfuls of paragraphs at her. One tried to “trip”, ending up between her feet and looking straight up, the satisfaction reddening his face.  
Good thing she had her axe.  
Nothing I’m not used to, She thought. A slight smile, amused, pressed down on her lips, as the man dashed to one of the other streets, swearing.  
Nothing she wasn't used to.  
______________________________  
“I'm fine, Suze.”  
Well, guess what, Lance? I am, too.


End file.
